Hi Jean, My comments inline.
Jean McCormack wrote: > > There are several issues with respect to the addition of software > selection > in the installer that need to be addressed. > > 1) The user interface > > A user should have the option to install different software > collections (Desktop, AMP, HPC, ... etc.) > during installation that accompany the default installation. Each > collection should not include the 'kitchen sink' but be representative > of a useful and popular selection of software that users typically use > for that task. > > Frank has a screen shot of what he has come up with here: > http://xdesign.sfbay.sun.com/projects/solaris/subprojects/install/design/screensSlim08-11.html > > > If the number of collection choices is larger than about 6, we may > have to add a "Software" screen following the Welcome screen. Looking at the screen shot, I don't see a place for people to specify 1(or more) repositories and potential mirrors for those repos. Is it intentional that we don't allow users to specify this? I remembered that there's some discussion about IPS supporting detection of repositories near by to install from. Is that feature going to be supported in time? If not, what's the alternative? > > > 2) What do we want to display in terms of data for the user with > regard to software collections? > > -Do we want to display the list of packages included in a software > collection to the users? -Do we want to provide the ability for users > to pick and choose > outside the collections? > -Marketing requirements seem to indicate we don't need to let users > pick individual packages(see above) > > Frank's response was the following which is reflected in the link from > #1 above: > The short answer is that I think we want to provide a short list > (<10?) of purpose focused "collections" without listing specific > packages, though we might provide a short description next to a > collection that lists the major "applications" in that collection. > I believe that the collections should contain a reasonably complete > set of packages for that function, but selecting all collections > would not necessarily load all packages in the repo. The package > manager could be used to fine tune the package set after > installation. I also like the idea of having not too large number of "collections" too. It should serve most of the users well. > > 3) How can we maintain the list of packages now, since IPS does not > currently provide an API for querying for the info.classification tag? > > Evan did some research on this, the summary of which follows: > "The current Package Manager is maintaining it's own set of > "collections" or groupings and that using the currently available > tools we would have to do the same, using something like the .p5i > files to define these. > > Going forward the IPS client API will be enhanced to allow us to use > the info.classification tag and query IPS for this information for > dynamically building up these collections or groupings. " > > > 4) Method of installation > > > I had a discussion with Sarah about our current methods of installations: > 1) Everything is installed from media (current liveCD). Fast but not > easily customizable. > 2) Everything is installed from IPS repo (current AI). Customizable > but slow. > > > This project proposes to implement the following: > 1) LiveCD contents are installed from media. > 2) Selected package collections are available to customize the > installation via IPS. > > Phase 1 of the project will install the software collections from the > network Does this mean that the content of the LiveCD will be installed, then, ADDITIONAL packages will be installed from the network? Or does this mean everything from the LiveCD will be ignored, and we will only install from the network, like AI? Thanks, --Karen > Phase 2 of the project will allow installing the software collections > from the IPS repo on a disk. >
